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Category: Thriller

I received a free signed first edition copy of this book from the author and publicist in exchange for an honest and unbiased review of this edition.

A murder takes place in the small little village of Shendon. There is something that you should know about his murder that will make solving this crime just that little bit harder for the police trying to solve this murder; nobody liked the victim. This leave practically everyone in “Little Shendon” has a suspect, including the two tourists who are only visiting the town.

It was this concept that I loved when I was approached about reading and reviewing this book. I love murder mysteries. The joy of trying to solve and uncover the killer before they’re revealed. The adrenaline. I love it, and the fact that this book had so many possible killers with so many possible motives, giving more back stories as we were going along, just added to it all. The way that the plot was brought together, all lined up perfectly and I didn’t see it coming. I love it when a book takes me completely by surprise and I haven’t been able to guess the ending, the killer and so on. Then, when looking back on hindsight, you kick yourself not seeing how you didn’t see it coming.

My copy was only 248 pages long and for a book that wasn’t that long, there were a little too many characters introduced into this book. They weren’t all able to stay with me and I wasn’t able to remember each of them specifically, which was disappointing because I felt like I wasn’t giving them each their due respect. I know that this is meant to represent a small village, but some of the characters, including the main ones, just got lost for me possibly because of the vast amount of other characters. But, if you were to take out and reduce some of the characters, or spend some extra time building up and introducing the main characters, possibly making this book about 50 pages longer minimum, there would have been time for there to have been some great character development.

There were some editing mistakes in the copy that I received, that were present in the entirety of the book. Simple things like missing speak bubbles, simple spelling mistakes and other things, that over time did start to annoy me. There is one in particular spelling mistake that does stick out for me as it was then emphasised further by being put into italics. But when an author is so close with their work, things like these are often missed and it is understandable.

Each chapter has their own title name, which gives you a little hint at to what each chapter is going to be about. This could be a little temptation if you were going to end on that chapter, or, if you want to have a little flip through and see what Chapter the killer is going to be revealed in. Not that you would read that Chapter before it’s time, of course, but it’s still nice knowing how long you have left until all is revealed. I will admit though that this story did drag a little bit for me and I was tempted to skip to that chapter entitled “And the killer is…” Maybe it was because I was nowhere near guessing who the killer was and wanted to know who it the murder was.

So, I did enjoy the story, but it could have done with being longer to have developed more of the characters. I defiantly like the idea and the concept behind it and would have loved a whole Murder on the Orient Express ending, that’s here my head was going when I was reading the book. I loved that idea. How it was all brought together in the end was so good and clever and I’m gutted I that I missed it. I wish I could’ve rated it higher, but I’m defiantly giving it a strong 3 stars out of 5!

​I was approached and sent a free copy of this book by the authors and publicist, in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion of this book.
I didn’t know what to expect from this book and I was surprised by how quickly I was able to immerse myself in this book and the world within it. The characters of Jane and Susan were strongly developed to the point that you start caring about them, which is what you want with this type of book. The same can be said with the male characters and the suspicion that surrounds them and the possibility that they could be the guilty character, the Gentleman Rapist. Not knowing who to trust.
This book is surrounded in so much mystery, which is fantastic has it keeps you guessing right up to the last few pages. This mystery and these questions are answered in the last few chapters, which is where everything is so brilliantly brought together.
There were some editing issues in my copy where wrong names were used when talking about certain characters and so on, as though there were some last minute switches. These were just silly mistakes that could’ve been sorted with a once over, but it’s something I had to mention as it happened several times and it did begin to annoy me. But on saying that, it didn’t interfere with the story.
I just discovered that this book is the second book in the Jane Larson series and I’m interested to read the first book.

This is a book that I had once purposely avoided reading when it first came out, due to the extreme hype that surrounded this book. I was then given a few free credits to audible and decided to use one downloading Ready Player One and see what all the hype was about. After all, what was I losing? I can’t believe that I waited so long before immersing myself in this world.

Imagine a world, not far off our own, where majority of the world spend their time plugged into a Virtual Reality world, called the OASIS. The Oasis is a virtual world, which has become more like reality than reality itself. So much so, this is where children go to school, create businesses, earn a living and so on. The OASIS was created by James Halliday and just before Halliday death, he created a competition inside the OASIS that would have the power to change everything for someone. And Wade Watts dreams of winning this competition. But competition always brings out the best or the worse in others.

This book made me fall in love with audiobooks. Listening to this book instead of reading it, in my opinion made my experience of this book so much better. Instead, I got to fully emerge myself into the story, be a part of it, hear the story through Wade Watts voice. Almost emulating the OASIS in a way. This world was so easy to get into and to stay immersed inside for the entirety of the book, so much so that every time I had to knock it off, I did so with reluctance. The game references and 80’s pop culture references throughout, added something to this book. Even if you didn’t understand it all, there would be at least parts that you can connect to. It was so different from anything that I have ever heard or come across before and I loved it!

I first listened to this book last year, back before the mention of the movie adaption, while on holiday and I also finished it during that holiday. Now, after seeing the trailer to the movie and the time lapse since listening to it, I had to re-listen to it. I had no choice, obviously. This time, I listened to the entirety of the audiobook in a day and half and don’t regret it. There was no turning it off for anything, except for sleep. There was some that I had forgotten, or just not heard the first time, and I’m so glad that I listened to it again. Definitely a book I actually want to own and read physically, seeing if I have the same experience as listening to it, as if it improves or is worse. Massive 5 stars and highly recommended!!

Tell me what you think. Have you read this book, and if so, what format did you use? Are you excited about the upcoming movie adaptation? Comment below.

I received this eARC from the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review of this book.

This is the second book in the Freedom/Hate series and it picks up from where the first book left off. I am going to try and give this review without giving away to many spoilers from this book, or from the first book, Freedom/Hate, but I give no promises sorry. So to be on the safe side, I am going to provide the description from Goodreads:

““It’s in our blood.”
The last words spoken by Uly Jacobs, seconds before his death was televised across the nation.

Since that day, the authorities have been hunting Libby Jacobs. She doesn’t know why they want her, or why they killed her cousin. Desperation has forced her into hiding with a group of people that she once thought of as terrorists. Living among them, she soon comes to realize that everything she once believed in was a lie.

Justin Becker was Uly’s best friend. He grew up with Libby. Once upon a time, he even loved her. Now, Justin has taken on the task of picking up the pieces of Libby’s shattered life. The first step will be finding Libby’s mother. She is critically ill, alone and lost in the broken system. Finding her will be difficult. Saving her may be impossible.

The city is changing. Collin Powers was nobody until the authorities turned him into a symbol. Now his ideas have taken root. His words are forcing people to question their beliefs. His sacrifice will push Freedom out of the shadows and give them the courage to start living up to their name.”

I loved this book!! How much simpler can I put it? I had been waiting for this book ever since I first read the first book, which I received and read in advance, so you can only imagine the wait. Again, thank you to Kyle Andrews, for sending me this sequel in advance and let me tell you, I was not disappointed! I thought that I enjoyed the first book, but then after reading this one, it not only reminded me why I loved the first book, but it also added so much more, to my enjoyment, my excitement, and to the development of the story and to the characters. Freedom/Hate left off with an ending that left me desperately wanting more! Literally. I remember emailing the author back screaming NOOOOOO!! You can’t end it like that! So you can understand my excitement to finally be sent and asked to read and review the eARC sequel of that book 😀

Blood Rights picks up exactly where it left off in Freedom/Hate, so yes, you definitely have to read the first book in order to understand and fully grasp everything that happens within this book. You wouldn’t be able to get away with skipping the first book, Freedom/Hate and starting with this book, hoping to grasp everything and picking everything up from what’s being mentioned. But that is the fun part. You get to enjoy the full extent of the series by actually reading the whole series. Oh, by the way, this is a Dystopian themed series, in case you hadn’t guessed.

You get to know more about other characters in this book, while still keeping the main ones from the original. We still have Libby Jacobs, Collin Powers, and Justin has our three main characters, but now we get to see some extra characters through their interactions. We get to see more of Libby’s boyfriend Sim and her mother Amanda, but now we get to see them with the aftermath from previous events and see if and how that’s might have affected them. We also get to see more of Freedom this time round, the actual Freedom and not just the Hate that everyone has been lead into believing is the truth. We also get to see another side of HAND that we haven’t got to see yet, the inside and vicious side that nobody wants to see.

He did it again!! The author knows how to leave you wanting more because that’s how I’m left right now. I finished reading, what I thought was the end of a chapter and turned a page to find out it was the end of the book! NOOOOOOO!!! I need more. I just finished reading a book that was just under 500 pages, my copy, (Goodreads says 352 pages), in almost no time and I could’ve gladly and easily have read more. But OMG that ending!! How could he do that again. I love this series and really do enjoy reading it, which shocked me at first at how much, because this type of book, and this whole dystopian theme and type, which isn’t really my usual type. But it’s really well written, has some strong characters, and the story and plot is what makes me beg for another book to arrive sooner.

I definitely recommend you read both books in this series, and I mean BOTH books in this series, with one of my highest recommendations I can and have given so far! Prepare for the cliff-hanger ending, needing the next book immediately, but knowing you’ll have to wait, which is the only disappointment I faced. However, the third book is out now so, lets see how it can compare. 😀 😀 Super Excited!!! I give this book a MASSIVE 5 out of 5 stars!!!

Have you read any of these books? What are your thoughts? Have you read a book or series where the ending made you need the next book in series right away? Or if it was a stand alone book, what stand alone book do you think just needs to have a sequel? Comment below 😀

I was sent a free eARC of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review of the book.

This book tells the story of Collin Powers on the run from the police and even worse, HAND, who have convinced the world that he’s a murderer and terrorist, involved with the terrorist organisation known to the country as HATE, who have been blamed for countless more deaths and destruction. Collin, in fact, belongs to the group known as Freedom, whose incentive is trying to get theirs and everybody’s else’s freedom back to them. This is why they are all being targeted and why even their groups name has been changed in the media to the HATE, making out that they are the bad guys. This book also tells the story of Libby, a school girl who has problems of her own, at home, at school, family problems, boyfriend problems, food problems and so much more. When it comes to Libby we get to see the side of the story of the people who are living under the lack of freedom. The lives of people who have no choice of what days they are allowed to go shopping, allowed to picked what food they pick or put on their shopping list, what extracurricular subjects they take in school, as everything is picked and allocated for and to them. No freedom. Then one day everything changes….

There is no question in my mind that I am going to be giving this book a great review, as I finished this book in two days and stayed up reading until 3 am because I couldn’t put this book down!!. This book was amazing and now I really can’t wait to read the next book in the series so I can find out what happens next. I’m really invested in the characters, even the secondary characters had some great development and has me rooting and hoping that they’re going to be okay, especially because there is death and violence in this book so you’re afraid that you’re favourite characters may actually die next.

There were some editing issues, but that’s a very small issue, which can be expected with an arc, and the main aspect takes a long time to get discovered, which annoyed me a little because it was pretty obvious. This book is set in a dystopian world, which I will admit always takes me longer to get into, because the logical side of my brain always kicks in and asks a million questions. That’s when I have to try and just sit back and escape to the place where I’m reading, but once I’m there and connected, it’s like I’m there.

This book was so exciting, with so much packed in, that it flew by so quickly, getting to the end before I realised that I had read 435 pages by the time I had reached the end of the book. This was made worse by the fact it was an eARC which meant that when I went to slide for another page, the book had ended. I need to read Book 2 fast! This is definitely a series that I see myself becoming hooked into.

I definitely and highly recommend this book!! Enjoy and get ready to get hooked to this brand new series. Massive 5 stars.

I received this eARC thanks to Netgalley and the publisher and author, providing an honest and unbiased review of this book.

Where do I start with this book… There is this place, a truly strange, somewhat near deserted place, between Wyre and the Lune, that is known only by what the few locals who remain there call it. That place is called The Loney. Every Easter, Mummer, Farther, Mr and Mrs Belderboss and Father Wilfred, the parish priest, would take a pilgrimage here for its mystical Shrine, along with the unnamed boy narrator and his suggested mentally ill and mute brother Andrew, known better as Hanny, in order to help heal Andrew thanks to God. However, this year is different. Father Wilfred is dead, declared accidental, but is there more to the story? So now there is a new priest to take his place, Father Bernard, who has his own ways, but are people willing and ready to accept him and his new ways or do they prefer things how they were?

In all honesty, I’m really in two minds when it comes to this book and about whether I enjoyed it or not. It took me a while to get into the story and when I say a while, I mean at least a third of the way through. If I hadn’t been reading this book for Netgalley at the time, then I don’t think I would have finished reading it, that’s how long it took me to get into this book. It started off with a slow pace and for me it wasn’t until they actually got to the coast or The Lonely, where it started to actually pick up the pace. But that’s when I got into the book and it hooked me. I wanted to find out more and therefore needed to keep reading on! I had questions and wanted answered, or I just simply wanted to read another chapter and another chapter because I didn’t want to stop.

I will admit that I didn’t realise how much this book was going to be centred and based on religion and maybe that’s why it took me so long to get into the storyline, as it was a bit off putting. It was interesting to read a book that did focus so fully on religion in this way, but it did come a bit unexpected. This cover grabbed my attention instantly and has to be one of my favourite covers I’ve seen in a while. I love it, and I knew it was meant to be a horror book, so I barely read the description before requesting to read this book on Netgalley. Maybe that’s my mistake, but descriptions can sometimes give away too much information and then spoil the entire book. Like trailers with movies.

One thing I loved about this book was how it was told. The beginning of the book starts off with the unnamed protagonist narrator beginning his story to us, the readers, at his current age, trying to get his point of view of past events across, before it’s too late. The book then goes back to when he was younger and he then begins that part of his story to us. We get to see everything from his eyes and how he saw and remembers it all, which shamefully took me a while to realise what was happening. Throughout the whole book, we never get to know his name! This does annoy me, but yet I also think that it’s fitting for his character, as he never really gets any of the attention in this book. The character who shows him the most attention is Father Bernard, who subsequently gives him his own little nickname, which is the only name we hear him called throughout the entire book, and that’s Tonto.

I personally believe that there are some very strong characters, with great development behind them, illustrated in this book. Even though I couldn’t connect to several of the characters because of their strong religious beliefs and how much it defined them, how they were presented in the book was strong. There were others I loved. I loved the relationship between the brothers ‘Hanny’ and the main protagonist ‘Tonto’ and how only siblings are and how they have their own special relationship. They are able to communicate in way that no one is able to in the whole entire book. In fact, ‘Tonto’ is maybe to only person who is able to properly communicate with Hanny. Their relationship kind of reminds me of George and Lennie’s relationship in “Of Mice and Men”.

I don’t think that I would class this book as a horror book, as it didn’t frighten or scare me, especially compared to more thrilling and terrifying books. It just wasn’t creepy enough. But maybe that aspect was lost on me as I wasn’t fully engaged enough to be afraid of what I was reading. There are elements of supernatural, I think, mixed in with religion, but it’s hard to identify which is meant to be which.

When it came to the ending, it definitely left me wanting more. In my eyes, it had been building up to this big ending, or big reveal, and it just left me completely unsatisfied, with questions left unanswered. I’d even been expecting some plot twist at the end for some reason, which didn’t occur. For a book that was 367 pages and wasted pages on unnecessary parts, it could have used that time to spend it answering those questions and building towards a better ending.

So when it comes to my recommendation of this book, I will say that it all depends on what your personal preferences are. This book does have some high reviews, so I may be in the minority that didn’t appreciate it to its fullest. I did enjoy it, but was left dissatisfied and it did take me a while to get into it. If you don’t like overly religious books, then maybe pick a different book. I’m only giving this book 3 out of 5 stars because it wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t my favourite either, just maybe the wrong book for me.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the author and publisher for allowing me to read this eARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review of this book.

OMG!! From the very first page this book had me hooked! Told from different characters perspectives, we discover how Lily, who was kidnapped at aged 16, was beaten, raped, “trained” and manipulated over the course off 8 years, even mothering a child from the man who took her and did all of these terrible things to her. The story starts eight years later, when her taker, her former beloved English teacher Rick, has too much on his plate or becomes too cocky and too greedy, forgets to put the deadlock back on the door. Lily thinks that she’s just imagined this, or that it’s another test that she will get punished for, but then seeing her daughter curled up sleeping, she risks yet another punishment, for her daughters safety and checks the door. Discovering it’s not a test and he’s finally made a mistake after eight years, Lily wraps her daughter Sky up warm and starts running to safety before Rick remembers his mistake. And that’s where the book gets really, really good….

This book is hands down my one of my favourite books that I have read lately and it came out of nowhere! I found this book so captivating right from page one and every page just managed to grab me, pull me in and keep me hooked. It was written amazingly, with characters that I cared so much about, each and everyone. With a villain that I simply hated. A normal, every day man to people’s faces, but behind closed doors, sadistic and PURE EVIL!! When you have a book with so many characters, who each have their own problems, and to care and understand each of them and their problems, it’s, in my opinion, really good writing. There were chapters written from the perspective of individual characters, which was brilliant and something that I love as a reader in certain books because I get to see inside each of their minds in a deeper way, and I creepily loved being able to see inside the mind of Rick. Seeing why he did what he did, in a way that he could never explain to anyone, in a way that he truly believed was right and acceptable.

I would have loved, to have seen just one chapter, maybe at the end of the book, to have had one chapter from the point of view of Sky, Lilys daughter, just to see what she had thought of it all and how she had felt after going though it all and come through everything. It would have added something extra, especially coming from a child’s perspective of it all. Even more considering Sky had been born not knowing anything different, to then discover a new way of living after “leaving” the cabin, thanks to her mum, Lily. It would have made it interesting to have included one chapter at the end to see how Sky had interpreted it all and see it from her point of view. But I understand not having that and I loved how it did end. In fact, when a certain part happened, without giving away spoilers, I was in utter shock!!! I was reading this book and genuinely gasped out loud out with shock, being surprised towards the end, telling everyone around me to be quiet because I had to find out what was about to happen next!! Not caring what people said or how they were looking at me, I just needed to know.

Trying to put myself in Lilys place is a scary thought, which is why I think I got so engrossed in this book. It took something that could really happen, and has been known to happen, and brought it to life. It’s not ghosts or vampires or anything pretend scary, and it didn’t even have a vicious villain, not really. It had a well liked, or really loved man in the society that nobody knew what he was like, really like, deep down, not even his own wife. That’s the scary part! It could be reality. That’s the truth of this story! That you don’t know what people are really like, not really, no matter how well you think you do. Your next door neighbour. Your friends. Your husband. Your cool english teacher who offers you a lift home. It’s realistic and scary.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough!! This book will stay with me for a while and have talked about and recommend this book to so many people. I will definitely be checking out Hollie Overton and keeping my eye out for more of her books coming out.

I have recently read this book, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t own this little title for a while now. I bought this book when it become the big phenomenon that The Girl On a Train had become, with the intention of reading it straight away to discover what the big fuss was about, but as usual, I got a little distracted, probably by a different book. But now with the release of the movie onto DVD (well in my country) it really got me excited for this book again, so of course I had to read it. Now how to explain this book without giving away too many spoilers, because I personal hate it when that happens, so I wouldn’t want to spoil it for anyone else.

This book is told between three women’s perspective; Rachel, Anna and Megan. Rachel rides the train everyday, or every weekday, with every other commuter who is going back and fore to work and back. She loves the train. She knows everything about it. Every stop, every signal. Every house it passes, the people in those houses. At least the lives she makes up for those people in her head. She always sees her favourite couple, Jess and Jason, although that’s not their real names of course. She fantasies about their perfect relationship. That is until one day she sees “Jess” kissing someone who isn’t “Jason” and she get’s angry. But, Rachel has a secrets also. One of those secrets is that Rachel is an alcoholic who sometimes blacks out. And when she blackouts this time, “Jess” a.k.a Megan is missing, and Rachel has woken up at home in bed hurt and covered in blood, with no idea what’s happened.

I will start off by saying that I was really disappointed and massively let down with this book. I don’t even think it has anything to do with the anticipation and build up of waiting to read it and then finally doing so after so much time, that it just let it all down. I just personally think that it wasn’t as good as what it could have been. There was definitely story there with the potential for it be great, but the way it was written and executed, I think was poorly managed. The way that it was setup and organized, Morningand Evening, was a good idea when it came to Rachels’ character because of the train and how she spent majority of her days on the train, but I don’t think this needed to be carried on indefinitely. Those two are not the only times of the day.

I couldn’t really connect to any of the characters, and when you think that you are starting to, they say or do something that just pushed you further away from them. I don’t know if this was done intentionally or not, but this even included Rachel and Megan. Then you have Anna, who I think I disliked the most out of them all. Even when it came to the other character’s, such as Tom and Scott. I will admit that I did guess the ending. It wasn’t to difficult to work it out as it was all PLAINLY laid out in front of you. I actually said to myself very early on that it couldn’t be that simple or easy, but yepp.

I think why I’m so frustrated when it comes to this book, is because the story is there for it to have been so great. The whole idea of it and the story is, without a doubt my favourite part, but you have to forgive, or rather I have to forgive some major parts to accept that, such as the writing. For a book to have had such a massive hype that this book has had, I honestly did expect it to be better than what I read.

I wouldn’t recommend this book, purely on the fact of how disappointed I was when I finished it, plus the fact that I would NOT re-read this book again. But if you are going to read this book, please go into it not expecting great things, at least that way, it may turn out a little better than expected.

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